Awaiting trial for running a land investment scam, and with their passports seized and bank accounts frozen, Clive Griston and Matthew Noad set up a multi-million pound fraud while on police bail: selling carbon credits to the same elderly and vulnerable investors they targeted the first time around.

The men headed a gang that was found to have conned more than 200 victims out of £10 million, including the savings of a World War II veteran and a survivor of the Thalidomide drug, who invested his compensation settlement worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, according to court documents and media reports.

The duo took on fake identities and laundered money with the help of family and friends, including Noad’s father Roger – a former banker at Coutts, the Queen’s bank.

The gang then spent the cash on multi-million pound mansions, luxury cars, expensive jewellery and lavish holidays before they were arrested, convicted and jailed.

Their story can be seen by UK viewers in the first episode of Fraud Squad, Thursday Apr. 30 (tonight) at 2100 BST on ITV.

SPOILER ALERT – Read ITV’s episode synopsis here, or the press previews:

London Evening Standard – Conman sang Jessie J hit Price Tag with wads of cash after scamming Thalidomide victims out of £10 million

Express – Greedy €50billion-a-year fraudsters industry leaves misery in their wake

Daily Mail – The laughing vultures: They were Britain’s cruellest con artists, gulling the elderly of their life savings in a £10million scam. And the more they made, the more they revelled in their victims’ misery

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